Asamoah Jet flying; John rock laying flat on his back

This was an interesting weekend for the African footballer in Europe. I had a free weekend so I managed to watch quite a number of games. Some completely, others partially. Combined I watched included:

Bologna - Lecce

Inter-Brecia

Sunderland-Stoke

Rennes-Lyon

Arsenal-New Castle

West Brom-ManCity

Liverpool-Chelsea

Bari-Milan

Juve-Cesena

Lazio-Roma

PSG-Marseille

Porto-Benfica

All these games in an effort to keep track of the field performance of our African boys in the diaspora looking to make a name for themselves and make their mark. Asamoah Gyan in particular managed to achieve some of this on Saturday with an outstanding performance against Stoke City. Now although Stoke might not be one of the more sexier teams in England, they are one of the more physically astute with numerous 6 footers and tough tacklers. We ll all hope that this form continues and he improves with more playing time.

In the same game, the sight of John Mensah struggling to remain vertical through out the game was pathetic, his injury record is a mystery and a shame . I dont watch a lot of Sunderland matches, in the past 2 years, this was my third time watching Sunderland Mensah didn't play in 1 of the 3, but in the other 2 including today he had to be subbed due to an injury, I hope Blackstar followers have prepared to move on with out "The Rock of Gibralta".

Elsewhere, Chelsea's win ratio without Essien continues to be mediocre...........more to come this week